Seven excuses that keep people from starting an online business… and how to overcome them.

If every single day you get out of bed and wish you could take more control of your life through harnessing income for yourself, then this piece will really help you.

It will really help you because we are going to take a look at the real reasons why people never set-up their own profitable lifestyle business, and how you can deal with each of those reasons to succeed where others fail.

If you are looking for an easy ride in life, if you think things are going to just fall into your lap with a little bit of effort, then none of this will be for you. You might think it is, but the truth is that you will be sitting here reading similar articles in a years time.

The truth is that people who are successful make themselves successful. People who are not successful dream.

What I'm saying is, at the end the day there is always a way. It all comes down to attitude, belief, work ethic, desire...and going for it!

If you can't see a way, then unfortunately you are suffering from that often fatal disease called procrastination. You may not see it as procrastination, you may be justifying it in your head with a variety of intensely practical daily reasons for not taking a new path.

But in your quieter moments, eating away at the back of your mind, is the truth: You haven't started your own business because you are always finding reasons not to.

To change that for you RIGHT NOW, Let's address the seven main reasons why most people never take control of their own income streams. We will look at each in turn, and take them head on.

At the end of it you're not going to have any excuses left.

So be warned. If you don't want to be honest with yourself, and you want to keep on dreaming of taking control of your life, then this blog post will be a complete waste of your time.

Excuse #1: Time

“Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can't buy more hours. Scientists can't invent new minutes. And you can't save time to spend it on another day.....”

I'd really like you to look back up at that quote and read it again.

I'm sure you'll agree, it's completely true?

Every single one of us has exactly the same amount of time in our lives.

Every single one of us has exactly the same amount of time in our lives.

No that's not me making an error, I did type that sentence twice. It has to sink in.

You have the same amount of time as me. You have the same amount of time as anyone else who is also juggling their own lifestyle business with personal and professional development, a family, hobbies, personal issues and all the other things which eat at our time.

You are no different to anyone else, everyone has busy lives we have to deal with.

I'm running my own lifestyle business and am in control of my future, while most people are still hoping to someday.

My existing clients also have exactly the same amount of time, and exactly the same amount of other issues to deal with.

A client of mine who managed to skyrocket his online business while holding down a high-pressure job and dealing with all the other stuff each of us has to do in our private lives.

It can be done. But you have to really want it.

I'm not trying to be harsh here, it's about putting the facts out in front of you like a corpse. Cold, unsavoury and depressing.

The truth is that everyone has time if they want to make it. It's mostly in the mind. The way to get time is to tell yourself that you can make time and then create the space and use it, not to make excuses by telling yourself you can't.

I've made the time. Bill Gates made the time. You can make the time.

Excuse #2: Money

The second excuse that you may be using to not go for it is that you don't have the money to get started.

So the question I will throw right back at you is, how many people with successful businesses ever have enough money to get started?

Did Richard Branson have the money to get started? No, he sold records on a market. But he owns his own island now.

Do any of the people getting bank loans to scrape through the tough start-up period have enough money? Or do they take a risk?

I certainly didn't have a comfortable pile of cash to burn when I set up my online business.

The truth is many people have started online businesses with virtually zero money. That's the beauty of online business.

If you have no money, you have to do more yourself. You have to increase your skill set, do more of the donkey work, go through bigger pain barriers and face a steeper learning curve and climb it.

But it can be done.

So money is not a barrier. And neither is knowledge…

Excuse #3: Knowledge

As I just said, if you have no money you have to do more yourself. You have to learn how to do more things, you have to take on more skills to succeed.

And even if the prospect of putting it all together is overwhelming, don't you think that's exactly how everyone else who has started their own online business and succeeded with few resources, safeguards and fallbacks felt?

The difference between them and you is they started chipping away at their knowledge and skill gaps, while you are throwing your hands up in the air and saying it's all too difficult.

So even if you are technically challenged, you can do something every single day to build that knowledge.

Can't do something every day? Really? Ten minutes networking on Twitter? Ten minutes researching a potential competitor to spot a gap in their offering?

Honestly?

If you're really serious about changing our life, make a plan. Look at your skill gaps, look at your knowledge gaps, write them all down. Plan out a timetable to learn each piece, or to locate people who will be able to help you when you need them.

If you are not yet planning to fill your skills gaps and you don't have the money to pay for those skills, then why are you even considering being your own boss? How can you be in charge of yourself in the future if you completely refuse to take control now?

For me, using a lack of knowledge as an excuse is unforgivable. The reason for me feeling that way is that the knowledge to succeed in online business is out there, and it's free. You just have to stop pretending it's a barrier and start learning.

Excuse #4: Contacts

This is another excuse I hear time and again.

People thinking of starting an online business look at the people who are in business and think that the reason they cannot succeed is they don't have the network of contacts to do so.

The truth is most people who start an online business don't have the contacts. We build them.

You can do it two ways. Just like knowledge, you can plan in advance to fill that gap. You can network to gain contacts. It easier than ever before. Social media, forums, email.

If you feel isolated, it's your fault. No one's going to jump up and scream that they want to give you their knowledge and support.

So just like filling your knowledge and skills gaps, start looking right now at networking in the industry you want your online business to be in.

And if you don't know what your business is going to be, don't use that as another excuse to still not do something to address starting down the path.

You will need writers, web designers, coders, marketing people, organisational people. All of these are out there on Twitter, Facebook groups, forums, everywhere, in their own communities discussing their own industries.

Getting out there and talk to them. Say you're thinking about setting up a business and find out how have they helped people like you. Find out how they got started with their own gained skills.

Excuse #5: Idea

I've called excuse number five “idea” because it covers several things.

Perhaps you have no idea about what your online business will do.

Perhaps you have an idea, but you don't think it is good enough.

Perhaps you have 1 million ideas, but can never settle on the one you “really” want to go for.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to one simple, single thing:

You are scared to commit to a course of action.

That's the real reason why people say they never have any good ideas for a profitable lifestyle online business.

I could sit down and brainstorm 50 online business ideas in an hour. So can you. Then you can research each of those ideas online.

Look at what already exists, look at the competitiveness. Where are the gaps in that service or product?

Undertaking a simple process, in just a few hours you could narrow it down to one or two ideas that both drive your enthusiasm, and that have noticeable gaps in the existing marketplace you can slot your business into.

Consider this:

OPPORTUNITY IS NOWHERE

Can you spot the opportunity in that negative statement? If so, you can spot the opportunities in any marketplace.

Just in case you're struggling on that:

OPPORTUNITY IS NOW HERE

And if you're still wondering how you can come up with what you believe is a viable business idea, look at the things you enjoy. Look at the things you'd like to enjoy.

It doesn't even have to be some existing skill. It could be something you learn as you go, providing ever more refined content, products and services as your own skills grow.

If you are in that boat as a beginner, so is somebody else. Other people are on the same journey and are looking for information on how to progress that journey. All you have to do is provide them with information by being slightly further along the road than they are.

The truth is that you don't have to be an expert to teach others – you just have to be more of an expert than they are.

And once they are onboard, as you develop your expertise, they will want to harness it so they can get to where you are. Progressive business development as you travel on your own journey.

There are no killer ideas. There are just ideas that people make into killer businesses, through their passion and their persistence in finding their place in the market, then developing it as they develop.

Excuse #6: Motivation

As far as I see it, if you have the motivation to get out of bed in the morning, go to work and get through the day, then you have the motivation to be successful in your own online business.

Now of course, if you have medical reasons for lacking motivation, such as depression, then you need to be honest with yourself about whether the goal of starting a successful online business at this stage is the right thing to be focusing your emotional energy on.

But for most people, a lack of motivation is the most ludicrous excuse of all.

The truth is that you do have the motivation to succeed in online business. The truth is that it is not motivation that is the problem, it's FEAR.

Because you have all these doubts about whether you can make it, you are fearful, which makes you feel a lack of motivation. Rather than accept you scared, you then tend to put it down to a lack of motivation.

To take a look inside yourself and be honest. Are you really not motivated enough to start your own online business? If the answer is genuinely yes, then please stop reading now. There really is no point in continuing.

But if the real reason is fear, you genuinely are scared about the prospect, then that is a completely different issue to deal with.

Spinning that round into a massive positive, you have now understood that it's not motivation that you have to deal with. Everyone is scared when they start out on the road, everyone has a crisis of confidence nearly every day when they do so.

I will put my hands up and say there were times when I was scared. You will definitely experience it as well.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.

What you should do is to minimise your fears, through managing.....

Excuse #7: Risk

The risk reason basically comes down to asking yourself one question over and over again:

"What if I fail?"

Well, you might fail. But then again, you might succeed.

You might die today. But then again, you might not.

You see what I am saying?

Every single day of your life you are on borrowed time and you take risks, however small. Like crossing the road.

But I know which I would find more upsetting in my life. It wouldn't be trying as hard as I could to set-up an online business that can provide a better life for myself and failing, it would be spending the rest of my life wondering if I could have succeeded if I had started.

Consider this saying from hockey player Wayne Gretzky:

"You'll miss 100% of the shots you never take."

I don't think it can be stated any better than that.

Now I'm not saying be flippant about it. I'm not saying just turn around and tell your boss to go to hell, come home and tell your partner you quit your job and are going it alone, and then sit down at your desk and start doing it.

You need to plan. You need to have skills and knowledge. You need to have a clear idea of what you're going to do. You need to have clear goals both the business, and for the lifestyle you want in the future.

You need to have a network of contacts, or access to people with their own network you can use.

You may need money. You may not, but knowing in advance by planning, will make things easier.

Front and centre, you should be planning now to minimise the risks later. Going it alone is always a risk, just ask the millions of people who do every day.

They take that risk because it's worth taking.

And we are not talking about entrepreneurs who make six figures. What about the millions of people who set themselves up as freelancers in the past couple of years, due to the expanding digital economy and the worldwide downturn?

They don't have a company pension, sick pay, holiday pay. They don't have the comfort of wandering into work and having a nice chat with their colleagues over a cup of tea every day to ease their fears.

They don't have the comfort of having a boss to tell them what to do so they don't have to carry all the risk themselves.

But what all these people have done is to have confidence in themselves, understand what needs to be done, how it needs to be done, and then they have gone for it.

If you are not prepared to take the risk that millions of others do, then you don't really want to set up your own profitable online business.